


little things

by clownenergy



Category: The Last of Us (Video Games)
Genre: Drabble, Gen, Grieving, Henry is dead, Sentiment, after the events of part one, sam suvives au, sam wants to be sentimental, takes place in jackson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:55:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28057224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clownenergy/pseuds/clownenergy
Summary: Sam was never allowed to be sentimental.
Relationships: Ellie & Sam (The Last of Us)
Kudos: 2





	little things

**Author's Note:**

> Been thinking about who Sam would have been had he survived. This was supposed to be just a warm-up.

Sam waits on Ellie’s couch, fiddling with his fingers as the sound of rock n’ roll plays low on her record player. It’s one of Joel’s records that Ellie stole from his house. The sound is nice. Filling his ears with reverbeing noise of guitar strokes and the steady beat of drums. The singer is hoarse, but his voice is full of soul. Briefly, Sam tries to picture himself older, sitting at a table in a restaurant or bar. It’s fully intact - the signs of war and blood completely absent. There is laughter and talking and joy filling the room. He imagines the band taking stage and the soulful voice of the singer fills his ears.

  
“Here.”

  
Sam looks up. It’s the robot he stole from the toy store. The one he thought he left in the radio tower when they buried Henry. Sam didn’t want to take it with him after what happened. After Henry turned. It was too painful a reminder.

  
But here, in the garage converted to Ellie’s room, Sam takes it and strokes his thumb over the smooth, plastic surface. He smiles.

  
Henry never let him take anything from the places they visited or cut through on the way to their destination. When they were trapped in that Hunters’ zone, Sam had debated taking a pen from the office they stayed in. It was worthless. Completely dried out. Sam wasn’t going to be doing a lot of writing on the run from Hunters. But the desire for sentiment only increased the more Henry fought him over it.

  
He has managed to take a few things. A notepad from a hotel infested with clickers, broken glass from a bar, a slip of paper filled with a bullet list of things to do. Dumb, worthless things. Sam wanted to remember the spaces he occupied. The places where his feet stood. Where he breathed, and slept, and rested. Even if they weren’t good places filled with bad memories, he wanted to remember them. Sam didn’t know why. Maybe it was dedication. This world was now a graveyard, and maybe, some part of his mind convinced him that taking these things would honor the dead. It didn’t stop the pen and this robot from being worthless.

  
For a moment, he wants to be angry at Ellie for giving this to him. No matter how hard Sam tries to be angry with her, he can’t. He holds the robot like his life depends on it. Would Henry be mad if Sam kept it? Even though he was safe now? With a family who took him in, and a friend like Ellie who believed in sentiment?  
Sam sets the robot on the table.

  
“You’re angry,” Ellie says, pulling away as if she had done something wrong. “Sam, I’m so sorry, I know you left it at the radio tower but I just couldn’t-”  
He laughs. Ellie stops her rambling. Sam wraps his arms around her so tight she couldn’t hug him back. “God, you talk too much.”

**Author's Note:**

> I have so many ideas for this AU. Might post more.


End file.
